Letters

How to house the world

Steve Boggan's piece (Hidden homelessness around the world, G2, Septermber 28) was welcome in focusing on an important issue that is too little discussed in the UK press; the severe housing problems encountered by a large proportion of the earth's households. By including the inadequately housed under homelessness, however, he continues a long tradition which is not only insulting to the occupants of the so-called "slum dwellings" but also unhelpful to the truly homeless.

In a research project of homelessness in nine developing countries, co-ordinated at Newcastle University and funded by DFID, we have taken some pains to separate homeless people from those inadequately housed, even though the distinction can be difficult and the boundary fuzzy. The reason is based on what should be done to assist households in each circumstance. For those who are "merely" inadequately housed, well-targeted, enabling approaches, as recommended by UN Habitat, can produce improvement. These would be community-led, neighbourhood-based, nonsubsidised, and consist largely of onsite improvements to maximise both the physical assets of the household and the productive effect of housing supply. For the truly homeless, however, we argue that a welfare approach is probably necessary, including shared accommodation (even reintroducing flop-houses) and subsidies to cover costs.

While such a subsidised approach may be politically and practically possible for the estimated 100 million homeless, it would be both unhelpful and impossible for the billion people or more in inadequate housing. Dr Graham TippleUniversity of Newcastle